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Chapter Two

Rex took one look at the equations and promptly started doodling in the corner of the page, a doodle that looked suspiciously like the maths teacher, a lemon-lipped woman with lank dark hair cut in a bob, wearing a crimped-collar blouse and a pleated skirt.

Tentacles, Rex decided. And spikes, poison-tipped for good measure. He added them to the doodle. Maths…Rex had a feeling he'd prefer an EVO to this as he stared at the numbers.

That's what she's gonna look like when she turns EVO. Tentacles, poison-tipped spikes, a reptilian tail will sprout out in the same tartan pattern as her skirt, and lemon-yellow eyes and scales.

"Didn't you sleep or something?" Noah hissed from the next desk over. "C'mon, Rex. She'll give you detention if you don't get this done!"

All so good for you, 4.0 GPA boy, Rex thought glumly.

Above the whiteboard the clock ticked down so slowly to the next bell that the second hand might actually be moving backwards.

Next mental list, Rex thought. Ways to wake up from this nightmare. Falling off buildings…they say you have to wake up right before you hit the bottom, don't they? He gulped. Or else that they die if they do hit the bottom, in real life…

Okay, that'd be last resort plan. How about electric shock? He could imagine going down to the basement and smacking the generator box, save a few kids from terminal boredom at the same time. How does Noah survive this place? He thought frustrated as he glared at the algebra. Okay, electric shock. That could work.

Jump into really cold water; that could work too.

Get something thrown at him…he looked at the teacher narrowly, wondering if he could make her mad enough to throw something hard enough to wake him up. Nope, he decided. Something tells me she would cope with the inmates of an asylum if she had to…and get them doing sums too.

The desire to escape was reaching critical levels. I'm not gonna pretend to throw up. Or actually throw up either. He looked at the fragile pen in his hand then pressed it to the paper until the ink burst over the page.

"Gotta go," he said, holding up his now-blue hand.

Frowning, Noah watched him practically run from the classroom. Then he stuck up his hand and said, "Stomach ache. Gotta go." Without waiting for a reply, he went after Rex.

"Holiday….my mother," Rex leaned over the sink, feeling dizzy. "What next, Six my dad? White Knight, my babysitter?" the words felt dead and hollow from his tongue. "School…I go to school? I live in a house?"

Providence, I work for Providence. I live in a room that's practically sterile. I fly, I punch, I kick, I fight Van Kleiss…I'm an EVO…I have a talking monkey…He stared at his reflection in the sink mirror, and panicked brown eyes stared back at him.

"Rex?" Noah sounded on the verge of terror, making Rex spin around, his hands already forming fists…but not metal fists.

"Okay, I think we'd better get you to the hospital," Noah said.

"How'd you find me?" Rex's voice was dull.

"Well, first I checked the guys' bathroom…then I thought, hey, crazy thought, maybe Rex is in the girls' bathroom. And here you are. In the girls' bathroom. And here I am. Also in the girls' bathroom."

They exchanged one look and ran from it.

"Okay, what's going on?" Noah demanded in the corridor. Rex looked up to make sure no one else was there then he determinedly checked he was going into the right bathroom and went back in, going to the far wall and rested his back against it.

"I think I must be having a hallucination," he finally told Noah and took a deep breath. Noah said nothing, just waited for him to explain.

"Okay, before I went to sleep last night, I was fighting EVOs," Rex said. "I was normal."

"Normal is fighting EVOs?" Noah raised an eyebrow. "Bro, your dad's gonna kill you if he ever hears. So I'll do you a favour and never tell him."

"That's it! He's not my dad!" Rex snapped. "He's Six, okay?" He rubbed his arms, feeling chilled. "He's like, my nanny, he found me—"

"What, so you're like, a foster kid now?"

"I don't know! I don't even remember anything before Providence—"
"Providence is involved now? Okay, I think I'd better take you to the hospital right now and check that they didn't, I don't know, go crazy and experiment on you—"

"But I'm their secret weapon!" Rex burst out.

"Okay, we're getting you fitted for a straitjacket on the way to the hospital. For my safety. And yours too, I guess."

"Noah!"

"Look, call your dad—"

"He's not my—"

"Fine, Eight or whatever you called him—"

"Six!"

"Six. And your mom. They'll pick you up." Noah's voice dropped, trying to be calm. "Everything's gonna be fine, Rex. We'll find out what happened—"

"—What's happened is that I'm in Bizarro Land!" agitated, Rex started swearing in Spanish and started to the door. Fear was raising its ugly head in him again, am I going crazy?

"You said you fought EVOs last night?" Noah interrupted his thoughts. "What happened? Did you walk outside past curfew?"

"Curfew?"

"Well duh. You did, didn't you? Your mom is gonna freak and your dad's gonna kill you. Nice knowing you, man. What did they do? Slam your head into a wall? You're lucky they didn't eat you."

"I'd better go," Rex said tiredly and turned the tap on, dunked his ink-stained hands into the water. For a second the coloured water that coursed off his hands shone a different colour, red. Then the weird moment passed and he started trying to scrub the blue ink off his skin.

"I'll cover for you," Noah said. "Seriously man, you should see a doctor. You never know, it could've triggered your nanites." He looked at Rex like he was a doomed man now.

"How could they trigger my nanites," Rex said slowly, "When I'm already an EVO?"

"I'll pretend I never heard that. You must have concussion." Without another word, the freaked Noah left the bathroom.

Rex glared at his reflection and clenched his fist. "I'm ready to wake up now!" he growled and pinched his arm hard.

It hurt, but he wasn't waking up.

"That's it!" Rex snapped finally. "I'm getting out of this madhouse." He turned on his heels and stormed from the bathroom, his hands still dripping. He dried them off on his pants as he walked, ducking behind corners whenever he saw any hall monitors.

It was time to wake up, no matter what.